This invention is concerned with annular bands and tubular sleeves of the type used as identification markers on a wide variety of articles, as, for example, the individual electrical conductors which comprise an electrical wiring harness, and apparatus for applying bands or sleeves to such articles. The invention is further concerned with annular bands or sleeves used to secure in assembly groups of two or more articles, such as axially elongated electrical conductors used in the manufacture of electrical wiring harnesses.
For many years tubular sleeves cut from extruded plastic tubing or like material have been used as identification markers or bands for axially elongated articles such as electrical conductors. Such tubing may comprise heat shrinkable material color coded or marked with alpha-numeric information to distinguish one banded article from other banded articles of generally like kind. However, such plastic tubing is not generally well-suited to receive printed material, which presents a problem where printed alpha-numeric information is required to assure proper identification. Further, when a sleeve or band cut from tubing is used to identify an associated axially elongated article having a substantially uniform cross section throughout its length, such as a cylindrical electrical conductor, the sleeve or band must generally be positioned at or near a terminal end portion of the conductor and have an inside diameter approximately equal to or only slightly greater than the outside diameter of the conductor so that it will remain in position near the terminal end of the conductor to facilitate conductor identification. Consequently, when a cut sleeve is used as a marker for such an electrical conductor the sleeve must be slipped onto the end portion of the conductor before the conductor can be terminated by application of an appropriate contact or other terminal element. The marker sleeve or band is usually manually applied, a time consuming operation which adds materially to the cost of the finished product .
The problem of printing alpha-numeric information on sleeves where specialized printing apparatus may not be available has been overcome, at least to some degree, by the provision of a continuous form assembly of flat tubular sleeve markers which may be conveniently fed through various types of commonly available printing equipment. A continuous form assembly of flat tubular sleeves of the aforedescribed type is illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,361,230 to Downing et al., entitled Assembly Of Tubular Sleeve Markers, issued Nov. 30, 1982 and assigned to W. H. Brady Company, Milwaukee, Wis. The continuous form tubular sleeve assembly shown in the patent to Downing et al. comprises a multiplicity of preformed flat sleeve markers arranged in rows and columns and formed by two complementary webs joined together in face-to-face relation along spaced apart parallel seams and releasably secured to a carrier or base web. The printed preformed flat tubular sleeves which comprise the aforesaid continuous form assembly are separable from each other and individually detachable from the base web for individual use.
Although the use of a continuous form flat sleeve assembly of the aforedescribed type substantially reduces the cost of printing the required identification information on marker sleeves, problems associated with the manual application of the individual sleeves remain. After each flat sleeve has been detached from the carrier or base web it must be manually opened or spread from its flattened to its tubular form. A fid or like hand tool is usually employed to perform this manual sleeve opening operation. Like the cut tubular sleeve hereinbefore described, each opened flat tubular sleeve must be slipped axially onto the end of an article to be identified. Where the article is an electrical conductor, for example, this operation must be performed before the electrical conductor can be terminated. The aforesaid manual operations required to apply a flat tubular sleeve marker to an associated, article such as an electrical conductor, add substantially to the cost of producing the finished product.
Sleeve markers such as hereinbefore described have limited usage and are not suitable for banding together in assembly groups of articles, as, for example, groups of individual electrical conductors which may comprise a section of an electrical wiring harness. Manually applied tie strips are most often employed for the aforedescribed purpose.
Accordingly, it is the general aim of the present invention to provide a more cost effective system for applying bands or sleeves to axially elongated portions of individual articles to be marked for identification or for banding together in assembly groups of two or more such articles. It is a further aim of the present invention to provide an improved continuous form assembly of tubular sleeve blanks, which may be readily preprinted with selected information using conventional automated printing apparatus, for use as marker sleeves and/or bands for securing together in assembly groups of two or more such articles. A still further aim of the invention is to provide an apparatus for separating successive sleeve blanks from a continuous form assembly of sleeve blanks and simultaneously forming each separated blank into a tubular sleeve surrounding an associated portion of an individual article to be marked for identification or for banding together in assembly a group of two or more such articles.